. this morning on "early today," playing it cool. both candidates down play expectations ahead of the first presidential debate of the 2012 election. to the rescue. tense moments as an 84-year-old woman's car plunges in a main harbor. and flipping ou a powerful typhoon wreaks havoc on southern japan. this is "early today" for monday, october 1st, 2012. hello, and very good morning to you. i'm veronica de la cruz. today we begin with debate prep. president obama and his republican rival mitt romney are both getting ready for their

first face to face presidential debate in denver wednesday night. romney is holding a rally in the mile-high city today, while the president gears up in nevada. nbc's tracy potts joins us with washington from the latest. >> reporter: good morning, everyone. we get an interesting perspective on this from john mccain. he's debated both the president and mitt romney, and he says we will see two very strong well-prepared debaters and he predicts few surprises. the president's behind closed doors in nevada for the next two days preparing to face mitt romney in denver wednesday. >> he's a good debater. i'm just okay. but what i'm most concerned about is having a serious discussion about what we need to do to keep the country growing. >> reporter: both sides are down playing expectations. a senior aide to the president says romney will be prepared,

disciplined and aggressive. romney's debate partner calls the president a tough debater. >> barack obama is going to be formidable and i think it will be a good debate, but i certainly would not underestimate what barack obama brings to it. >> reporter: john kerry's playing romney with the president. in a weekend memory, republicans urged kerry to press the president on libya and syria. romney calls obama's foreign policy dangerous. romney's debate plan, clearly and concisely explain how he can fix the economy. >> i expect to be able to describe that in a way people will understand, and if they do, i get elected. >> reporter: his running mate paul ryan is already preparing for his own debate a week away. >> i believe in what i believe, i do what i do, and i really believe in the policies we're providing, that we're pursuing. and at the end of the day, i'm just going to go in there and be me. >> reporter: and if you can't control what actually happens in

the debate, you certainly control what happens afterwards. the spin already in the planning. ryan's going to be with romney in virginia. the president is staying in colorado for a rally there. veronica? >> thank you. nato forces in afghanistan say three international service members and their translator were killed in a suicide bombing in the eastern part of the country this morning. this as the war in afghanistan reached a grim milestone sunday with a death of the 2,000th u.s. service member. nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel has the details. >> reporter: there has been another insider attack, the so called green on blue attack, when afghan troops attack and kill their american partners. so far, this year, these kind of attacks have led to at least 20% of american combat deaths in afghanistan. a group of american soldiers were manning a check point, a vehicle control point, when they were approached by two afghan troops. the afghan soldiers walked up to the americans, they exchanged a

few words with them. it's not exactly sure what was said between the american soldiers and the afghan soldiers. but then one of the afghan soldiers pulled out a weapon, opened fire, killed an american soldier, killed an american contractor, and then other american soldiers in that area responded, killing at least three afghan soldiers. richard engel, nbc news, kabul, afghanistan. on this first monday in october, the u.s. supreme court begins its new term today. six of the nine justices attended the annual red mass to pray for judges at st. matthews cathedral in washington. this month, the high court is expected to take up the question of affirmative action. during the session, the court may also hear arguments on the issues of same-sex marriage and civil rightles. the justices will hear their first case relating to the terrorist surveillance program that allows tapping phones and e-mail communications as part of the war on terror. and now here's a look at

some other stories making news early today in america. in maine, a group of strangers spring into action when an elderly woman drove her car into the portland harbor. the band of good samaritans pulled the 84-year-old out of her car moments before it sank. the woman is in stable condition. some of the rescuers had to be treated for hypothermia. carmageddon 2 has come to an end just in time for this morning's rush hour in california. the demolition job hit a snag when a column collapsed. look at it go. work crews completed a major component of the four-year expansion project. in kentucky, a test of strength was on display. 34 teams of 20 people battled to see who could pull a 757 cargo plane 12 feet in the fastest time what. were they thinking? the competitors showed the money as well as some muscle.

all of the teams raised a thousand dollars for the special olympics. all for a good cause. finally, hawaiians continued their love affair with spasm hundreds gathered to build the world's largest mosubi. the 628-pound hawaiian snack was made with loads of rice, loads of seaweed, and of course, all of that spam. the event also featured a contest where the winner downed seven of them in three minutes. not seven 682-pound masubis, right? now for your weather, here's bill karins with a weather channel forecast. when was the last time you had spam? >> over ten years. it's been a long time. >> and you're a big fan, right? >> obviously. obviously. well, good morning, everyone. a lot of nasty weather. we had a washout of a weekend throughout many areas of the deep south. coming out of texas, mississippi, alabama, we saw numerous periods of rain and

thunderstorms. i mean, some areas needed the wet weather, but we didn't want to wash out a nice fall weekend. this morning, the storm isn't going anywhere. still located over the top of jackson, mississippi, and we have a lot of rain across tennessee, now spreading all the way through the carolinas. and even now atlanta is starting to get a little bit of light rain. as far as the heaviest rainfall, the worst drive is interstate 40 from jackson, tennessee, all the way up to nashville and memphis. the morning commute does not look pretty. the heaviest rainfall forecasted over the next 48 hours is from central tennessee and i even think some areas of northern georgia have a chance of picking up an inch of rain today. we will see clouds increasing in the mid-atlantic region, but from d.c. to areas around richmond, late day showers for you. the southeast is where we could be dealing with some showers. maybe even some strong storms. that's a look at your national forecast. now here's a look at the weather outside your window. this weekend, we also saw a

storm system heading up through northern portions of new england. it's still spinning up there as it crosses new york state into areas of canada, so our friends in northern new york and vermont also dealing with some pretty windy and wet and cool weather. that storm that's in the deep south going to linger for much of this week. i'll tell you the details coming up. >> no, no. you know how much i love rain. not. a new quarter begins. pump prices fall and bonnie and clyde's guns go for anything but a steal. your business headlines are straight ahead. plus, baby baby baby no! an unbelievable incident at the opening night of justin bieber's "believe" tour.

a very good morning to you. welcome back to "early today." i'm veronica de la cruz. here are some of your top headlines this morning. at least 26 people were killed in bombings across iraq yesterday. that brought the iraqi death

toll in the month of september to nearly 200. iran's official news agency was taken in by the satire of the onion and ran their phony news story as if it were a real news item. the agency apologized for mistakenly running the satirical article that claimed that a gallup poll found that whites in rural america prefer iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad to president obama. an iranian cameraman who went to the united nations in new york with president ahmadinejad has defected. he is seeking asylum in the united states. japan was hit by a typhoon, which was strong enough to overturn vehicles on the island of okinawa. more than 140 people were injured and tens of thousands lost electrical power. and a painting by renoir worth up to $100,000 was bought at a flea market for -- get this -- $7. an auction of the painting was

stopped on saturday. a woman from virginia bought the landscape on the banks of the tseng mostly for the frame. the painting was stolen from a museum in baltimore in 1951. score. and now here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow closed at 13,437. the s&p lost six. the nasdaq was down 20. taking a look at overseas trading, in tokyo, the nikkei dropped 73 points, while in hong kong, the hang seng was closed for a holiday. as a new quarter begins and presidential candidates prepare to square off, economic data will be of particular interest to wall street and main street this week. the labor department's september employment report comes out friday, but will be high on investors' agenda all week. fed chair ben bernanke's latest take on the economy will also get a lot of attention when minutes from the federal reserve's latest policy meeting are released. september auto sales are also on

tap. some experts predict sales are up nearly 11% over last year. meanwhile, according to aaa, the price of regular gas is down about five cents in the past week to an average $3.81 a gallon. overseas this morning, uncertainty about spain's bailout weighed down asian stocks. thousands filled spain's capital this weekend to protest sweeping budget cuts and austerity measures included in a 2013 draft budget. elsewhere, on the heals of apple's debut of the flawed apple app, oracle customers sl l have access to nokia's services. hewlitt packard is set to roll out a new device that will work with microsoft's new windows 8 operating system. the elite pad 900 comes at a time when, according to new research, half of all adult americans now own either a tablet computer or a smart phone.

and finally, who says that crime doesn't pay? two guns that belonged to famed partners in crime bonnie and clyde sold to an anonymous buyer for just over half a million dollars at an auction over the weekend. a quarterback makes history, and nfl teams break out a bag of tricks. plus, a colossal collapse at golf's ryder cup championship. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. and all the heavy rain over the weekend and this morning in the southeast is on the move. i'll tell you where it's heading coming up. you're watching "early today."

well, good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, the europeans played their hearts out yesterday, overcoming a 10-6 deficit to match the greateth comeback in ryder cup history. they held the u.s. to just three and a half points all day. jim furyk misses a putt and garcia wins one up, marking a point at which europe came all the way back to take a 13-12 lead. 18th hole, martin kaymer wins the putt to give europe the point they needed to win the ryder cup. the saints drew brees

connects with a 20-yard strike to marques colston, tying the nfl's all-time mark set by the great johnny unitas. behind in the fourth, the saints had a shot to take the lead, but missed a 48-yard field goal with two and a half minutes to play. green bay won it 28-27. new orleans is 0-4. some trickery in the nfl yesterday. a fake field goal turned into a two-yard touchdown pass to danny amendola, putting the ram ahead of the seahawks late in the first quarter. they would go on to win 19-13. in cincinnati, trailing 7-3 on fourth down, the bengals used a direct snap to running back cedric peerman for a 48-yard gain. they would score on a one-yard pass a few plays later. and the bengals beat the jaguars 27-10. dracula scares up big bucks at the box office. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead.

plus, from bullied to breathtaking. a michigan high school teen has her moment to shine. you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today" on this monday morning. hope you had a wonderful weekend. in northern new england, what a storm we're dealing with this morning. really wound itself up. you can see the spiraling motion, and the green is the rain. it's a chilly rain, too, probably knocking down some of those early changing leaves.

airport delays are possible in areas like atlanta. tomorrow that rain begins to head up the eastern seaboard, the mid-atlantic into the northeast. if you're watching us on wkyc-3 in cleveland, ohio, there's a unique exhibit that teaches american history through the everyday lives of children at centuries of childhood at the children's museum of cleveland. and that's your "early today" event of the day. >> that's a sweet event. nice. >> should be fun. >> yeah, exactly. here's a look at our headlines in entertainment news. halloween came early as monsters ruled the box office. "hotel transylvania" took in $43 million, the highest september opening of all time. "looper" snagged the number two spot. in other news, arnold schwarzenegger tells "60 minutes" he cheated on wife maria shriver multiple times, including an affair with actress

brigitte nielsen while the couple were dating. they divorced last year. lindsay lohan is claiming a 25-year-old man who she reportedly met at a nightclub grabbed her in her new york hotel room in an argument over cell phone photos her took of her. police arrested the man on assault charges but later voided the arrest when they couldn't be substantiated. justin bieber had a concert foul in arizona this weekend when he bent over mid song and barfed. >> ew. the biebs! >> yikes. the biebs. he continued the concert after the short break. and then he tweets "milk was a bad choice, lol." have you seen that movie? >> no. >> you haven't seen "anchorman"? >> no, i just remember the line. >> i'm not as funny as will farrell. >> at least you remembered where

it came from. the biebs. >> one of my favorite movies. this now comes to us from nbc 25 in michigan, where in nearby west michigan, one teen had the last laugh at bull lis. whitney kropp was nominated as homecoming queen as a prank, but support from the community helped her take a stand. the crowd showered her with cheers when she showed up at the homecoming game. she was didn't win the crown but was happy she stood up to her tormenters. i'm veronica de la cruz, this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

>> you're watching wbal-tv 11. live, local, late-breaking. this is 11 news today at 5:00 a.m. >> good morning. we're starting out with a little bit of fog. pretty thick in the western suburbs. temperatures in the upper 40's and low 50's. a mixture of sun and clouds. increasing clouds as we head into the afternoon. temperatures into the low 70's. the possibility of some rain on tuesday. >> 50 degrees at the airport.

the birds are propelled into the playoffs. >> fans could not be more excited that they are in the playoffs. >> the presidential campaigns predicting a great debate for the other guy. >> sarah caldwell checking on your morning commute. we'll give you up

[captioning made possible by constellation energy group] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> you're watching wbal-tv 11. live, local, late-breaking. this is 11 news today at 5:00 a.m. >> good morning. i'm mindy basara. >> and i'm stan stovall. thanks for joining us for 11 news today. >> a beautiful weekend. >> we have some